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a new revolution

Author: kaitieswings

So I have decided to change the focus of this blog a little bit to be more focused on me just putting some poems and stuff that I have written on here, so that this can be more of an artistic outlet. But who honestly knows because I could stick to that or I could (probably) not so don’t take my word for it.

So this poem that I am going to be posting now, I wrote while I was working. I don’t think that I have told you guys, but I am an intern in a plant science lab doing research which is an amazing opportunity and I have really experienced a lot and I am so grateful for the opportunity, but it has helped me come to the conclusion that I could not work in a lab as my career. It’s nothing against the people that do, I have just found that it is very important for me to be able to have a job where I can go outside, I can talk to people, I am surrounded by color as opposed to sitting in a bland white room with no people and no windows. I need to be able to explore, I can’t live off of a procedure. But anyways (see how this being a blog composed of just my poems is kinda impractical) it has given me a lot of inspiration for writing so here is one of the first ones:) Enjoy!

There is tape

Rubbed against the side of every single container

It’s kept in rolls and thrust into every drawer

It would be easy for me to reach across the bland, grey surface

Over the tubes full of chemicals I don’t care to know

and crumpled foil I don’t care to throw away

And slide my finger through the roll of tape

Tossed carefully aside

It would be easy to let it twirl around my knuckles

It would be easy to tear off a piece

Or maybe tear off two

Just to feel what it is like to rip something with such ease and grace

That’s the funny thing about the lab

Everything is covered in tape

Red, green, yellow

White with purple stripes

And blue with orange trim

And the reason for that is because they need to label everything

Yes, I know that is bland, but that is the truth

And they make their labels out of tape

(Glad we have gotten that cleared up)

In case you didn’t know, I will tell you that labels

are nothing to mess with

Especially in a sanctuary of science

Every detail of a label means something important

So why is it so easy for me to reach over

things that I don’t care about

to grab a hold of their labels,

dangle them between my palms

and then tear them?

It would be easy for me to rip those labels as many times as I choose

In any fashion or nature

those labels could become nothing

So why do you trust them so much?

After all, it’s just a piece of tape.

Say you and I were friends

Friends that were able to leave their trust in each other

And I told you that this glass that you held in your hand was full of cyanide

But there was a piece of tape plastered against the side

that said “water”

Would you drink it?

(I’d hope that you wouldn’t)

What if you had just met me and I told you that my name was Janet

And I walked and talked like a Janet

But my name tag said “Ben”

What would you call me?

(I hope you’d say Janet)

You say that maybe it’s not the same thing

but it is

It would be so easy for me to tear those labels apart

Almost as easy as it was for you to put them there in the first place

What if that label were wrong?

Would you even care?

What if you took a sip from a bottle of cyanide that said “water” on the front?

Growing up in Nebraska, I because comfortable with Christianity from a very young age. Although my parents never went to church unless it was a holiday or made us pray before we ate, my family did consider themselves to be Christian. Now whether that means that they believed in the stories or they just shared the same values, I was always told that I, along with everyone else in my family, was a Christian. And when I was younger I believed them. I thought that I was a Christian, I thought that there was a God and that Christmas was a special holiday, but that was because, that was what people told me to believe. It wasn’t until I was in about the 5th or 6th grade that I really started to explore what my true beliefs were. Now don’t think that the reason I am no longer a Christian and I don’t believe in God is because my parents threw me into Catholic schools or chained me to my bed posts, because they didn’t and really, if you think that someone would have to endure those kinds of things to develop such a viewpoint, then you really don’t understand how people work, so I will break it down for you:

People have their own thoughts.

I know that it seems complicated, but it is actually quite simple. I am a good daughter, I don’t stay out too late, I have perfect grades, I do everything that my parents want me to. But that doesn’t mean that I have to have the same beliefs that they do. Even if it wasn’t a constitutional and basic human right, you can’t stop the force of nature that is individuality. I don’t have different beliefs from my family and even from my younger self because I am trying to get back at my family or some twisted scheme. It’s just what I think and how I feel.

So now I will answer your question: Are you and atheist?

Yes, and no. I am an atheist if we are talking in the specific sense of just religion, but I prefer to be called a Secular Humanist, which relates to a broader spectrum of cultural and ethic viewpoints. I don’t believe in a God and as a Secular Humanist I believe that everything that can be explained with science. That things don’t just appear out of mist, that their is no divine being lives beyond the realm of our universe creating and manipulating us. I believe that we as human being are undesigned, unintended and merely the result of evolution. It doesn’t make sense to me that there is someone (or something) in the sky looking down on use and controlling us. It doesn’t make sense to me that you would want to worship said person when they allow children to be starving and shelterless. Allow people to kill each other over resources or ideas. Yes, you can’t prove that there is no God, but you can’t prove that there isn’t a flying tiger sleeping in a humongous teapot orbiting a blackhole 30 million lightyears away, but it seems pretty unlikely.

I don’t expect some people to understand what I believe, because I don’t understand what many of them do, but I do expect that they respect my freedom to have those beliefs as I do to them.

Throughout my life I have learned to take things with a grain of salt. No, a grain of salt is too big… maybe a grain of really fine cheyenne pepper. I’ve always been told that I was too short or too loud or obnoxious. Fine, whatever. But there are somethings that are too massive to be taken lightly.

I guess you guys can guess, but school just got out so I guess now I am a junior in high school, so supposedly for the last 10 years of my life I have been told that I wasn’t good enough. Now, as I said before I can take most things with a grain of cheyenne pepper, and you know, I probably could have if it was the kids in my class or even the kids that weren’t. But there is something about a whole school of teachers, telling you for 10 years that you aren’t good enough. Okay, that was an exaggeration, (it kinda stopped in high school) 8 years.

In my school district (I don’t know if they do this in other places) every child is placed with a label, (which is already pretty sketchy by itself). Your label is determined once you are placed in the school district, but can be changed throughout you school career. Now, you have to understand that I am a very obnoxious person. Not in the way where I am mean or anything, but in the way that maybe (not maybe) my voice is too loud, I can’t stop myself from blurting out the answers and I occasionally do things to get attention. Yes, I do understand that this can be very annoying and disruptive in a classroom, but it is just my personality and I have spent the last 10 years trying to contain it. I’m not mad that the teachers get annoyed by my frequent outbursts, I am distressed that they allow their personal feelings cloud their judgement. You see, in the ranking system there is different levels: below average, average, above average, gifted, and highly gifted; and the way that you get your label is supposed to be simply determined by your test scores during you elementary school years and can be changed by any teacher recommendation. The lowest score that I ever got during elementary school on a standardized test was a 99. So doesn’t it seem peculiar that I am only labeled as above average. I just want to say that I am not bragging, but I am definitely not going to take this with a grain of salt. I worked my ass off ever since I was young in school, started math clubs as recess (who even does that in kindergarten), eating lunch in the library by myself to read books on Native American tribes and Time Travel, asking the teacher for extra assignments over the summer and never once was I recognized for my hardwork. I’m not necessarily mad that I am labeled above average, I’m mostly mad for 2 other reasons:

I’m mad that although my teachers could obviously see my handwork show through my perfect grades and test scores, none ever stepped up to say that I should be relabeled. Even though I was transferred to the hardest classes, given the most advanced books and assignments to read, praised in class when I answered hard questions correctly, none of them ever took the time to change my label and it was probably because I accidentally blurted out the things that were in my mind and when I helped the person sitting next to me with a math problem, I spoke to loudly. I can’t take a clouded judgement with a grain of salt.

Now you may be asking: Why does this stupid label even matter? Well I will tell you, because if being mislabeled didn’t make me mad enough, the act of labeling itself is completely absurd. First off just let me say that I think that it is absolutely despicable that teachers and principals can label children like they are objects, saying that some are better than others. It may sound kind of hypocritical since I am complaining about my label, but that is what the whole institution does to children and students. It makes us feel awful about ourselves. Makes us feel like no matter what we do or how hard we work, we will never be recognized all because of a stupid label that although I know obviously isn’t an accurate measure of a students integrity, I have spent my whole life trying to change. You ask why I want to change it so badly, why does it matter so much? Not just because of how the label itself makes me feel, but what it gives to other people. Officials give some students more opportunities than others simply based off of this label. So you can say that it doesn’t matter, but it actually directly effects my education. I was denied the ability to go to certain events, I was excluded from the 7th grade ACT foundation, I am ineligible for some scholarships and am denied the ability to have a mentor. You say that this label doesn’t matter, than you probably have the one that you want. You probably were one of the students that helped to make fun of that one girl who wasn’t labeled gifted. After the other kids in my class caught wind that I wasn’t labeled gifted, they jumped right on my back. I was a perfectionist (I still am), I always had to have the best scores or grades, I always had to answer the questions and when the other students found out that I didn’t have the smartest label, they mocked me, made fun of me. Yelled at me every time I rose my hand, stuck sticky notes to my back that said “Returned” and “Ungifted”.

Maybe it doesn’t matter what your label is, but I cannot take what the label has done to me, with a grain of sand.

I had to write a story for my creative writing class that was inspired by a photograph that was of these people at the bank, and I ended up writing this poem. It is about how we have become so obsessed with money and I just thought that I would share it. It is called “Who is Human?”

Are they even human?

We wouldn’t be ones to know.

Seen only for their eyes and hands

Loved only for the bills that they trade

With folk of different destinations

Climbing different mountains

Crossing different rivers

Only talked to on terms of payment and money

Are they even human?

We wouldn’t be ones to know

We don’t say hello

Or goodbye

Or smile

Or tell them to have a nice day

For all we care they could have a day of

Cockroaches and no toilet paper

All we care is the weight that those bills adds to the bulk of our pockets and purses

So I’ve decided to participate in this whole “daily prompts” thing, to feel motivated to write more on this blog because it makes me feel good to write about my life on this page. I know it’s not really my style (if I even have a style yet) but I figured I’d give it a try. So without further a due, here it goes.

So instead of writing some sappy story about the secret to happiness or wealth or something stupid and lame like that, I figured I would do something fun. Because these prompts are totally up to interpretation, I am going to do a google search of secrets. If you’re still confused, what I am going to do is type into google: “the secret to…” and then each letter of the alphabet. Then I am going to explain the secret to that thing in my own words without knowing the actual answers.

A. What is the secret to Adma Stronghold? Okay, well I have no idea what Adma Stronghold is, but I’m assuming the secret to this is to wear the sassiest clothing you have and then eat mounds of Belgian waffles like nobody’s business.

B. What is the secret to ballin? Umm…. a ball?

C. What is the secret to caramelizing onions? The same secret as caramelizing bell peppers: ditch the vegetables and just eat the caramel. What that’s not what that is? Oh well.

D. What is the secret to danish happiness? Ha, well the reason that Danish people are so happy is because they know that their lives are boring, so they don’t have high expectations, so I guess, don’t have high expectations…

E. What is the secret to escaping duck tape? Crocodilian tape. Chomp, chomp.

F. What is the secret to fanduel? Fans dual? Um… I guess a big joist and a trusty steed.

G. What is the secret to getting clean? Avoiding mud puddles.

H. What is the secret to hacking terminals in Fallout 4? Wtf? Breaking into government organizations is never a good idea!! That is what they are talking about, right?

I. What is the secret to ihop pancakes? Syrup, yum.

J. What is the secret between Jason and Bryn? Tom farted.

K. What is the secret to kissing? Ask Ryan Gosling, he looks pretty good at it.

L. What is the secret to life, the universe, and EVERYTHING? 42. P.S. There’s no need to yell.

M. What is the secret to magic? Faith, trust, and pixie dust.

N. What is the secret to Netflix? Dude………… welcome to the 21st century.

O. What is the secret to Obama? HE’S A MUSLIM?? No. Why is that a thing? Is it cuz he’s black? That’s racist.

P. What is the secret to peeling boiled eggs? Make sure it’s boiled before you start peeling.

Q. What is the secret to quick change artists? They’re sneaky little rats that feed off happiness and joy. I don’t really know, that’s just an assumption.

R. What is the secret to reaching someone with words? Using your words.

S. What is the secret to solving a rubix cube? Youtube.

T. What is the secret to tic tac toe? What are you 5? Everyone knows you put your first mark in the middle cube! Duh…

U. What is the secret to unlocking terminals in fallout 4? This stupid game again?!

V. What is the secret to Victoria’s secret? Oo that sounds scandalous… She’s really an A cup.

W. What is the secret to winning the lottery? Don’t spend all your money on the lottery.

X. What is the secret to xbox 360? I don’t even care.

Y. What is the secret to yeti coolers? Martians.

Z. What is the secret to zombies? Um well they don’t have any emotional range, so they don’t have secrets…… so nothing?

Okay, I’m finally done and that was exhausting and now I’m going to list a whole bunch of obnoxious tags, so I hope you enjoyed!

Hello there, if you are an American citizen (or you aren’t but you pay attention to our democratic system) and you are above the age of about 12 then you are probably aware that it is that time of the decade again: Election time. Yes, every four years Americans everywhere take one day to head to the polls to vote for their favorite presidential candidate and spend the rest of the election season debating with their coworkers, family members, waiters, basically anyone, on who is best fit to run the country. But as fun as arguing with teachers and mailmen is, there is still a large percentage of the population that doesn’t vote even though they are able to. Many of these individuals believe that their vote does not change anything, but there have been several cases in which candidates have one by a measly 1 VOTE. For example Indiana politician C.P. Joshi lost by a single vote to Kalyan Chouhan when his wife, mother and personal driver failed to show up to the election. OUR VOTES DO MATTER! Even if you aren’t of age to vote you should still be apart of the conversation and at least know what is going on. I am only 15 and I can’t vote, but soon I will be apart of the voting pool, so even though us teenagers can’t vote yet, we should still stay apart of the action because we will have to make those decisions soon, because like I always say: WE ARE THE FUTURE!

So I notice a lot of the time that people can’t decide a candidate to vote for, or they merely pick a candidate because that is who there friends are voting for. I lot of people think that they have to vote for a candidate that represents their political party too, when this is definitely not the case, so I have a couple steps that can help you to pick the candidate that you actually think is the best.

Who does you? This means that you need to find the candidate that represents your values and ideals the best. If you aren’t sure what what candidate best represent your thoughts, than you can take the quiz at https://www.isidewith.com/political-quiz and it will tell you which candidates you agree with the most and least and on what issues you agree and disagree with.

Who does America? The president is supposed to be the face of the entire American population for the rest of the world, so make sure that the person that you vote for is someone who you agree with for the majority of the time and that you think will represent the largest amount of people. *reminder: the wealthy (Donald Trumps) only makes up 1% of the entire American population and yet the have consumed 99% of all of the the United States wealth*. Make sure that when you are picking a candidate, after you decide who best represents you, you think about how well that candidate represents the rest of America. Does this candidate recognize the needs of minorities? People in poverty? People with disabilities? Your vote has a lot of power so make sure you are doing the best you can with it. There may be a single mom with 2 kids and 3 full time jobs that can’t vote because she has to work, or a man who can’t move anything from the neck down and can’t travel to the polls, so make sure that your vote is making a difference. Of course it is your vote, but it is bigger than just you.

Last Thursday, one of the district senators for my state had this big event at the state capital building to bring awareness for a very pressing issue: climate change. I was fortunate enough to be invited to this event and be one of 80 15-25 year old from across the state to participate in this, what they called “summit”. The very first thing we did was listen to a professor from the university talk to us about the truths of climate change. He started off with a summary. All that we need to know about climate change can be put into 5 truths:

It’s real.

The fact that climate change is happening isn’t really the problem anymore, but instead the problem is that people don’t think we should do anything about it. Most of the Republican candidates put in their legislative plans that they want to relieve the limitations that government has put on power plants and factories to attempt to limit the amount of toxins that are forced on our environments. This is the opposite of what we should be doing!! We need people that can recognize that the earth needs to be kept clean. It’s no coincidence that 15 of the 16 hottest years on record were in the 21st century

It’s us.

I’ve heard countless arguments that climate change is not being caused by humans, but rather from volcanoes and Earth’s orbit and yada, yada, yada, and yes it is true that not every single cause for climate change is man made, but humans are contributing to a large quantity of climate change. This century as power plants, industrial factories and oil spills become more common, more greenhouse gases are being released into the atmosphere causing climate change.

It’s bad.

Yes, without greenhouses the earth would be 57 degrees Fahrenheit cooler and a lot of the crops that we depend on would not be able to survive and biodiversity of the earth would be much different, but the more that we release into the atmosphere the warmer the earth will become. Temperature are expected to increase from 4-9 degrees Fahrenheit by 2071-2099 and and addition 13-16 temperature stress days (> 100 degrees). With temperatures like these, the mosquitos that are carrying these feared diseases will be able to survive in more areas, making the transmission of these diseases more common. “Climate is a driver for everything we do.” One expert said. As the climate changes agriculture and biodiversity will change which will affect the ecosystems in which we live, changing our entire lifestyle. Because of this, climate change is going to hit the people that can least afford it: people in poverty, in third world countries, and people who are minorities.

Scientists agree.

Bring to their attention everyone who is against them. “If you want to combat climate change than you will be pretty lonely; military, America’s business leaders and a majority of American people agree [along with 99.999% of scientists] that climate change is happening.” Says Barack Obama and even Pope Francis says that “climate change is a problem which can no long be left to future generations”. Even 61% of the rural population in my state (of whom are considered very conservative) agree that climate change needs to be taken care of.

There’s hope!

As said in the famous movie, The Martian “We are going to need to science the shit out of this.” Scientists and politicians are working hard to combat intensity that climate change will have on the world. “This is humanity’s coming of age.” Said Adam Frank. The world has been through times of great climate variability and because mankind influenced this transition, we have the responsibility to find the moral obligation that we have to get involved in protecting the planet. Just recently countries across the world came together to sign the Paris Treaty to enforce action in the name of climate change. But this isn’t enough. Us kids, we are the future. The people that are in office now, won’t be there forever. Soon that will be us up there, or that will be the people that we vote for. We need to make sure that we are not only educating ourselves, but educating the people around us to elect the representatives that are going to recognize these issues. We are the voice that the world needs and we are the voice that will become the one that everyone hears so we need to make sure that it’s telling the right message.

Hello bright young fellows, my name is Kaitie, as I’m sure you could tell, and welcome to this website where I will be talking about things that concern me. Or things that interest me. Or more than likely, things that occupy both of these branches of integrity. I don’t want to call this a blog because when you call it a blog then you are immediately bombarded with the image of southern belle moms with obnoxious mac ‘n’ cheese recipes or tutorials on DIY cookie jars. No, this blog is about issues, “cuestiónes” as they say in Spain, and things that us teenagers should be paying attention to as opposed to a hard-hitting exposé on what to do at Disneyland, because let’s face it: we are the future.

I myself was not concerned with the varying controversies of today’s society, but last year after finishing my first run through of high school and a semester long course of Civics, I discovered that politics and current events really do affect us all and the youngest generation provides the biggest influx of input on these questions. We need to be informed and we need to be prepared, so where is a better place to talk about my opinions on these subjects than the internet? Don’t worry, though, as much fun as debating foreign policy and ethics is, there shall be posts where I explore the never ending enigma of adolescents;) See, I even know how to use keyboard symbols to make smiley faces. If that doesn’t apply 21st century teenagers, than I don’t know what does.

Now that we got all of that out of the way, I would like to introduce myself. Once again I’ll say that I’m Kaitie (spelled with two “i”s), just in case you didn’t get that from the rest of my site that is plastered with my name. Although it may not come across this way yet since my blog isn’t focused around 500 Days of Summer’s new single or Kylie Jenner’s crazy lipstick, I’m only a couple months shy of 16 years old. I know what you’re thinking: “She’s 15 and she wants to talk about politics on a blog?”, and to answer your question, yes. I may by 15 but I’m only 2 and a 1/2 years away from graduating for high school and it is never to early to prepare for the real world and besides, social issues can be interesting. Don’t get me wrong though. School is my everything, but I can also have fun. My friends and I love to party. Anything from jamming out in the car out to the city limits all the way to dressing up like Tom Cruise and running around in the rain to “Old Time Rock ‘N’ Roll” by Bob Seger. Old music is the best. The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Elton John and Stevie Wonder always ensure a great time. Don’t get me wrong, The White Stripes, Gomez and of course, Avril Lavigne are also good for dance parties. See, school and fun can compliment each other. I go to the Science Focus Program. It’s a high school but its a lot smaller. I have the same 5 teachers and 25 class mates for all 4 years of high school and I like it that way. I don’t mean to brag or anything, but it’s a pretty prestigious program only 25 new kids each year out of the 100s that apply. If you’re observant, than you noticed that its a “Science Focus” which by translation means we focus on science. I feel like I have to emphasize on that because a lot of people can get confused. The other name for it is “Zoo School” because it takes place at our local zoo in a secret, unauthorized to the public zone, so a lot of people think that the school is for people that want to be veterinarians or zookeepers, but I can assure you that most people in Zoo School DO NOT want to have anything to do with animals when they grow up. For example my friends want to be psychologists, therapists, and ecological engineers. Me? Well I don’t really know right now. I know for sure I want it to be biochemistry. Right now I kinda want to be a surgeon. Don’t ask me what kind because I’m not really sure of that either. But I also want to be an activist. Not as my main career, but more of a hobby I guess is how you would put. I want to attend protests on things I’m passionate about, raise awareness for organizations that are being pushed aside, you know, the usual. When I grow up, I want to know that what I’m doing is making a difference, that it’s changing things for the better. Whether that means I’m saving lives in the operating room, or raising awareness for gender equality, or both, I want to know that it’s helping people.

Well, this was a pretty lengthy introduction post so I will put a halter on my typing.